


just like the old days

by mechup



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: DWExchange20, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-19
Updated: 2020-07-19
Packaged: 2021-03-04 23:21:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,156
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25394518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mechup/pseuds/mechup
Summary: Sarah Jane runs into the Doctor. Twice.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 16
Collections: DW Exchange 2020





	just like the old days

**Author's Note:**

  * For [AlienWithABox](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlienWithABox/gifts).



Sarah Jane is no stranger regarding getting out of dangerous situations. She’s had more near death experiences than she can count, and she’s not usually one to brag but she’s become quite a professional at escaping them. This time, she’s found herself in a rather tight spot: hiding from the creature that is currently looking to eat her for dinner. 

She tries to keep her breathing as quiet as possible so she isn’t caught, but it’s difficult when she’d been running for the past few minutes. She covers her mouth with her hand in an attempt to stifle any noise, but it doesn’t seem to help because the creature turns right to her direction. It begins walking towards her, and she’s certain it hasn’t seen her yet, but it knows she’s there. She quickly tries to come up with a way to get out of here, but it seems impossible. She’s trapped. 

The alien approaches and she braces herself for whatever is going to happen next, but she feels someone take her hand. 

“Run,” the person says to her and she glances at them, startled, still frozen in her spot. Her surprise washes away within a few seconds as she recognizes him, unable to stop the smile that forms on her face at the realization that it’s her best friend.

“It’s you, isn’t it?” she asks, because he’s gone and changed his face _again_. (She doesn’t mind, of course, but it does make things just a little bit harder to figure out who he is when he never looks the same as the last time she’d seen him.) She had known, deep down, that she would see him again at some point, but she hadn’t exactly been counting down the days. Still, it makes sense that he’d be here now, when she didn’t have a way out by herself. 

They have minimal time to escape before they get caught but he allows himself to return her smile, because it’s _her_. He nods even though he doesn’t have to, and then pulls her in the opposite direction of the monster coming after them. They break into a run, feeling awfully like their younger selves when they were working for UNIT. 

“So, how are you, Sarah Jane?” the Doctor asks, ignoring the fact that running for their lives from an alien that wants to kill them is _not_ the time to be asking a question like that. 

“I’m doing very well!” she answers, smiling to herself as he takes her hand and guides her around a corner. They come face to face with the TARDIS and no matter how long it’s been, seeing the spaceship will always end up taking her breath away. He grins at her and opens the door, allowing her to enter first. “You redecorated!”

“I did,” he agrees, expression more than fond as he watches her take it all in. “Do you like it?”

“I love it,” she says with approval, placing her hand on the wall. She’s made fun of him before for his relationship with the box, the way he seems to treat her less like a spaceship and more like a friend. But she feels the same way, she’d always had some sort of connection to the TARDIS, and she feels it now. The TARDIS apparently returns her sentiments, because she feels the wall vibrate happily under her fingertips. It’s almost as if the ship is just as ecstatic to have her back as she is to be here. “Where are we going?”

“Anywhere away from that monster,” the Doctor says as he pulls a lever on the console and presses a few buttons. Sarah Jane had spent so long not traveling with him that she feels she shouldn’t be able to get back into the swing of things so easily, but it comes to her as easily as breathing. Being in flight in the vortex feels as natural as it used to (or even more so now, because the Doctor seems to be able to pilot his ship smoothly now), and it feels amazing. “Or we could...”

He trails off, but she knows what he’s asking. She would never turn down a trip in the TARDIS with him so she nods. “I would love to.”

* * *

  
  


If Sarah Jane had merely gone to the front of the building instead of heading around the back, she wouldn’t have missed the blue police box carelessly placed in plain sight. 

The car is parked and Sarah Jane is already making her way to the back door, her hand making its way to her pocket in case she needs her lipstick. She pulls the door open with ease, the sound of the creaking wood causing her to pause; she suddenly feels unprepared. She shakes her head to herself and firmly pulls the door shut behind her, determinedly heading inside. 

The haunted house is one that’s well known in the neighborhood. There have been rumors circulating the house for several months; in the beginning Sarah Jane had simply disregarded it as kids being scared of an old house but as time went on, disappearances in the area were starting to be uncovered. So Sarah Jane had taken it upon herself to come and investigate, which is why she’s currently standing in the house, the hair at the back of her neck standing up as a cold breeze wafts through the air. She holds back a shiver and straightens her jacket, telling herself that there’s absolutely no reason to be nervous. 

It’s daytime, because Sarah Jane would completely lose her nerve if she had come later in the evening, and she’s grateful for the sunlight that streams through the windows she passes as she makes her way farther into the house. She reaches a staircase and stops, flipping open her watch, hoping to be able to gather some information about what’s going on. It remains silent so she shuts it again and begins heading up to the next floor, keeping an eye out for anything that might be worth looking at. The majority of the house was covered with dust but the staircase has almost none because of all the people who were curious by the local haunted house and came to check it out. The bannister is shaky as she holds onto it, the steps beneath her boots creaking as she walks upstairs. 

The second floor is as uneventful as the first floor had been, and she finds herself walking up to the attic in no time. After all these years, she knows very well not to make any assumptions, but she was _certainly_ not expecting to see another person. 

The person turns around when he hears her footsteps, and her face rapidly goes through at least four different emotions, and then she manages to gain enough control over it to form it into a polite smile.

“Hi!” she greets her, not entirely keeping the excitement out of her voice. There’s something about her that seems awfully familiar, but she seems so unique that Sarah Jane thinks she would know if she had ever met her before. 

The person grins at her, and she hesitates; she can just _tell_ she’s seen that smile before but she can’t quite place where. But she shakes her head, sending the thought that she knows this person to the back of her mind, holding out her hand. “Hello, I’m Sarah—”

She’s interrupted as the person says for her, “Sarah Jane Smith, investigative journalist.” 

Sarah Jane gives her an odd look and gets an even bigger smile in response. “How do you know who I am?”

“I’m... a fan. I’ve read some of your work and... well, it’s an honor to meet you,” the person answers, and the expression on Sarah Jane’s face makes this whole trip worth it. 

“Well, I’m flattered,” Sarah Jane tells her. It’s not like she hasn’t ran into people who have heard of her before, because she definitely has, but there’s something about it that sounds more sincere when it’s coming out of this person’s mouth. It’s like she genuinely does respect Sarah Jane, even though she has no reason to believe her any more than she would believe anyone else. “So, what are you doing here?”

“Same thing as you, I’d imagine,” she answers, still appearing to be very excited. “Just investigating. Checking if anything is out of the ordinary. You know, the usual.”

“I do know, far better than most people might,” Sarah Jane says with a laugh, because she knows most people on the planet have not come near to all the things she’s experienced. The person laughs too, like she knows exactly what Sarah Jane means. “Before I forget to ask, what’s your name...?”

The person freezes, like she hadn’t been prepared for that question. “John Smith,” she says after a moment, and Sarah Jane blinks. It all makes sense, there’s only one person in the universe who could be so inexplicably familiar to her and use that name.  
  


“...Doctor?” she asks after a moment, eyes widened in wonder.

The Doctor outright beams. “Hello, Sarah Jane. Lovely to see you again.”

“You...” Sarah Jane begins, then trails off as she takes another look at her. “You’re a woman!”

The Doctor makes a face, shrugs half heartedly. “Not really, but people seem to think so.”

Sarah Jane accepts the comment without a thought, giving a nod of understanding. The Doctor opens her arms for a hug, and she eagerly accepts. 

Hugging the Doctor will always feel the same. Not physically, especially not now when the Doctor is much, _much_ shorter than Sarah Jane is used to, but the feeling she gets is always consistent. She holds on with a tightness the Doctor reciprocates, smiling at this unexpected turn of events. 

It’s too soon when they pull away but _any_ amount of time would have been too soon, and Sarah Jane takes a step back. “Just when I think I’ve seen you for the last time...”

“Oh, you’ll never see me for the last time,” the Doctor assures her, and she means it. She is _awful_ at going to see her past best friends but if she keeps bumping into Sarah Jane, then she will take it. “So! Have you figured out what’s going on here?”

Sarah Jane shakes her head. “Not yet. I hadn’t seen anything on the first two floors, and when I got up here I ran into you before I had the chance to check.”

She opens up her watch and looks at the readings, this time receiving information. She turns to face the opposite direction and the watch gets even louder.

“What’s it saying?” the Doctor asks, moving closer to see for herself.

“Whatever the source of power is coming from, it’s nearby,” Sarah Jane answers, looking up to make sure it isn’t visible anywhere in the room. There’s nothing to see, but almost immediately they hear a noise coming from the stairs. She glances at the Doctor, who looks equally as alarmed as she feels. 

The stairs creak again, this time even closer to the top. Then a person walks into the room, and it takes Sarah Jane a few seconds but she recognizes them as one of the people who has recently gone missing in the town. 

“Who are you?” the Doctor asks, eyeing the person suspiciously because they don’t appear to be acting humanlike at all. They stare straight ahead, not blinking or moving. It’s actually quite unnerving to witness. “What are you doing here? What do you want?”

“We have come to greet you,” the person says, voice sounding like it’s coming from multiple people at once.

“We?” Sarah Jane repeats. “Who is we?”

“We are the Skulpitine race,” the person answers, their words echoing as it booms throughout the room. “We would like to say hello.”

“They seem friendly,” the Doctor mutters to Sarah Jane. “Looks like they just want to meet the humans.”

“Not nice,” Sarah Jane replies with the shake of her head. “They’ve abducted multiple people. The one talking to us is someone who went missing a couple of weeks ago.”

“Oh,” the Doctor says, then turns her attention back to the person. “If you just want to say hi, then why have you taken innocent people?”

“We did not know this would make you unhappy,” the person says, actually looking apologetic. “We can return all of them if that is what you wish.”

“...Yeah, do that,” the Doctor answers. She and Sarah Jane exchange a glance; this feels much to easy, but the person has already began to glow. 

“Very well. We will send everyone back to where they belong.” The person is already starting to fade from the room, being brought back to their home. 

It might not have taken much effort this time, but it’s Sarah Jane and the Doctor saving people together, just like the old days. 


End file.
